Gortyne & Viannos massacres, Crete | Greece travel guide 4K

Gortyne & Viannos massacres, Crete | Greece travel guide 4K
Gortyne is a Greek city in Crete whose excavations have brought to light some beautiful remains such as an odeon, the Saint Tite basilica or the engraved stones of the Code of Gortyne, a collection of institutions and laws from the 5th century BC . Then, we go to the Viannos Memorial Museum-Memorial which recounts a painful episode in the history of the Cretan people in September 1943, victim of the barbarity of the Nazi forces who executed in retaliation nearly 500 men, women and children.

Gortyn, also spelled Gortyna, ancient Greek city toward the western end of the southern plain (Mesara) of Crete (near modern Áyioi Dhéka). Although unimportant in Minoan times, Gortyn displaced Phaestus as the dominant city in the Mesara. It shared or disputed control of the island with Knossos until the Roman annexation in 67 bce. Its importance lay in its control of the sea route between east and west through its ports of Matalon and Leben.

The region has been the center of Italian archaeological research on Crete (Modern Greek: Kríti) since 1884, when the great civic inscription, or “code,” of Gortyn was discovered. The code is the most extensive monument of Greek law before the Hellenistic Age. Later excavations disclosed most of the plan and public buildings of the Roman city, which was the administrative capital of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica.

The Viannos massacres were a mass extermination campaign launched by Nazi forces against the civilian residents of around 20 villages located in the areas of east Viannos and west Ierapetra provinces on the Greek island of Crete during World War II. The killings, with a death toll in excess of 500, were carried out on 14–16 September 1943 by Wehrmacht units. They were accompanied by the burning of most villages, looting, and the destruction of harvests.

The loss of life amounted to one of the deadliest massacres during the Axis occupation of Greece, second only to the massacre of Kalavryta. It was ordered by Generalleutnant Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller, in retaliation for the support and involvement of the local population in the Cretan resistance. Müller, who earned the nickname "the Butcher of Crete", was executed after the war for his part in this and other massacres.